Android Market Share Down to 37% in 2012

Bangalore: A recent report by Velti, the leading global provider of mobile marketing and advertising technology titled 'State of Mobile Advertising 2012: Year in Review' highlights the key mobile trends in 2012, including insights into the iOS market dominance and the growing international opportunity in developing markets.

Velti's report shows Apple regained market dominance after falling behind to Android in 2011. This year, Android's market share closed at 37 percent, compared to 53 percent in 2011. Contributing factors include the popularity of the iPad Mini and iPhone 5, as well as increasing affordability of the iPod Touch and iPhone 4S. In fact, new iOS devices released in 2012 had the strongest influence on changes in mobile use and impressions:

• The iPad mini saw more total impressions in November 2012 than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 did in the entire year - 20 times more.
• Although the Samsung Galaxy S3 was released at the end of May 2012, the iPhone 5, released in mid-September 2012, has already caught up to the Samsung Galaxy S3 in impression share. The iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3 each held 50 percent of impression share,respectively, by the end of November.
• Despite having the largest mobile carrier share in China, China Mobile has a much smaller share of impressions than China Unicom (5 percent and 11 percent, respectively). This is most likely due to the fact that China Mobile does not carry the iPhone.

"Looking back at 2012, we really see Apple's powerful influence over the mobile app landscape," said Krishna Subramanian, CMO of Velti. "A great example is China Mobile: despite the fact that it is the biggest carrier in China, without the iPhone it has low overall mobile app ad penetration, and advertisers in this market do not have the ability to reach consumers in large volumes. This is incredibly valuable insight for marketers and brands. At the end of 2012, iOS devices held a 63 percent share of the market-so we know that Apple holds the key to reaching consumers."

Velti' s report also reveals international growth is booming, offering value to mobile marketers to reach consumers around the globe. Key international markets surface as mobile hotbeds in 2012:

1. In Brazil, smartphone sales were predicted to increase 77 percent in 2012 according to IDC. The country now leads in consumer ad engagement with an average CTR of 2.58 percent. China trailed close behind at 2.40 percent, followed by Italy and Russia (2.18 percent and 1.88 percent, respectively).
2. Smartphone users in developed mobile markets were less likely to click on ads: the UK placed eighth at 1.67 percent, while Australia (1.62 percent), the United States (1.56 percent), Japan (1.46percent), and Canada (1.43percent) trailed.
3. In Europe, Spain saw a 1,020.7 percent growth in mobile impressions in 2012, which is significantly higher than its second and third place contenders, Russia (726.7 percent) and Italy (671.3percent). According to comScore, Spain sees higher smartphone consumption (63.2 percent) than the average penetration in Europe (54.6%).

"The U.S. and Western Europe have been mobile leaders for quite some time, but that landscape is clearly changing," said Subramanian. "Often in developed countries, mobile devices are the way consumers communicate and access the internet, do their banking, play games, and stream TV. With developing markets around the world now embracing mobile and supporting its infrastructure, we have immense growth opportunities in front of us for 2013 and on."

Other notable data from the report includes:
• Impressions served on photography apps grew 289.7 percent between January and the end of November. This may have been due to the increase in popularity of photo sharing apps and improvement in hardware capabilities.
• On Android phones, consumers love productivity apps. The category's impression share on Android (6 percent) dwarfs other platforms (1 percent on Android Tablets,1 percent on iPhone and 1 percent on iPad).
• AT&T holds 45 percent of impression shares in the U.S., almost twice the share of Verizon (25 percent) and more than four times the share of T-Mobile (10 percent).

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